any companies excel at providing services that are easily defined by a single industry: a retailer, a financial institution, a transportation company. For others, it’s not so straightforward. They may have started in one service area and expanded over time, or perhaps they identified a specific need that requires a range of experts to get the job done, ultimately creating a business model that defies industry classification.

Take, for example, Alaska Executive Search, which used to be all about, well, searching. When businesses needed help finding the right person to hire, they let the experts handle the task. Alaska Executive Search is gone now, and in its place is a firm with a broader mission and a bigger name.

People AK is the result of last year’s merger of Alaska Executive Search and Bradison Management Group.

CEO Paula Bradison came out of the healthcare industry, leaving her career there after suffering from burnout and then turning toward consulting. “Really the motivator was to help individuals and organizations not only avoid burnout but promote a healthy and engaged workplace,” she says.

Bradison Management Group focused on helping companies and their employees be more productive, successful, and satisfied. During the downtime provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, her company bought Alaska Executive Search, adding its reputation as a recruiter to her human resources toolbox.

People AK is a combined suite of services, from the recruitment of employees to their role within a company to how a company is designed and deploying business decisions and strategy to achieve the best results. On its website, People AK describes its expertise as, “The Art of People. The Science of Management.” The company employs twelve people full-time and retains nearly eighty temp workers around the state.

“A lot of times, what prompts people to call us is someone at work is disgruntled, and we find there’s a level of dysfunction in the work structure,” Bradison says. “We alleviate that pressure by looking at workflows, helping to streamline those, and looking at that longer-term strategy that helps people flourish in their jobs.”

Fundamental to People AK’s consulting services is helping organizations figure out their employees’ strengths and placing people in roles where they can be most effective. Recently, People AK brought strength-based training to construction superintendents and their teams. Bradison notes that construction companies are not her usual customer for this service.

“Not often do you get a bunch of construction superintendents who will stay off the job for a day and talk about how they communicate and basically how the company gets the best of them,” she says. However, “We’ve demonstrated that going through this training can lower safety incidents on the job.”

That is one of People AK’s foundational targets: how to get the best out of people and businesses.

“That’s our approach from scouting all the way through succession planning, is looking at output,” Bradison says. “When someone is good at their job, they’re naturally engaged and proud of their work. Businesses tend to focus on, ‘How do I hire someone?’ We’re focused on how you can keep them.”

As a design/build firm, Turnagain Marine Construction has in-house engineers for projects like the Ward Cove cruise ship pier near Ketchikan.

Turnagain Marine Construction

Recruiting remains a major element of People AK, but work begins before and extends beyond finding someone for a particular job.

“We know how to start scouting candidates before we get the job posting that needs to be filled, so we can get ahead of a lot of HR departments,” Bradison says. “We’re looking for people before you even know you need them.”

People AK’s client base is diverse: from seamen for the Alaska Marine Highway System to construction contractors, architects, and Native corporation executives, their recruiting and coaching has touched businesses across Alaska.

It’s important to Bradison that Alaskans know People AK is not just a recruitment company; her team of certified consultants can cover scouting and recruiting all the way through succession planning, employee training, and strategy mapping and implementation.

Currently People AK is focused on helping Alaska companies navigate the evolving business climate, including addressing changes in the labor market, hiring and retention, and addressing the emerging needs and desires of today’s workforce. As a result, they’re seeing new clients.

“In the past, contractors didn’t routinely use recruiters, and because of the labor market and because that is a place with a shortage of workers, they’ve reached out and we’ve worked with them quite a bit,” Bradison says.

Turnagain Marine Construction is not the usual general contractor. Specializing in heavy civil marine construction, the company supports the fisheries, transportation, and tourism sectors directly, and like People AK, it provides multiple services under one roof.

“We’re an integrated design builder,” says Jason Davis, president of Turnagain Marine Construction. “We have full structural engineering capabilities in-house, and that allows us to work with a client, public or private, from the very inception of a project idea all the way through to the final commissioning of a facility. That’s really a different process from what most facility owners are able to access when they’re looking to build a new dock, port, terminal, or whatever their needs may be.”

Based in Anchorage, established in 2014, Turnagain’s roster includes engineers and construction staff, with a workforce of up to forty-five people.

Notable projects have included building two floating cruise ship berths at Icy Strait Point for Huna Totem Native Corporation; the design and construction of the Crescent Harbor replacement project in Sitka; emergency repair work on the Halibut Point cruise ship dock, also in Sitka; and other work to support cruise ship activity in Whittier and Klawock.

The Icy Strait Point project was particularly rewarding, Davis says: Turnagain designed and built docks for what was essentially a from-scratch tourist destination there.

“They’ve done exceptionally well at providing opportunities for communities,” Davis says, adding that work on the Whittier ferry terminal is also potentially revitalizing. “What they’re going to be doing there is going to greatly increase the tax revenue and the financial stability for the city. These are tremendous drivers for economic development and independence for these areas.”

Marine construction has so many variables and challenges that there is a real opportunity to be creative and innovative, while also having a meaningful impact on the success of a project, Davis says.

“A lot of other structures are so dialed in, it becomes almost a commodity service,” he says. “Marine construction allows us to provide a better service in a heavily influenced niche market.”

With combined engineering and construction expertise, Turnagain focuses on providing solutions that fit the client’s needs and save costs on planning and conceptualizing.

“It allows us to give a very high degree of cost certainty and a lot of clarity on what the project will entail—the timelines, the cost—without a lot of capital expense on their behalf,” he says. “With our design/build experience and in-house engineering, we can provide a tremendous amount of value in the preliminary stages of a project and be a sole source, single point provider all the way through. A lot of our clients really like that.”

With Alaska projects planned in remote sites where there are often many unknowns about rock and soil composition, geotechnical surveying can also drive up costs for clients. Turnagain takes a different approach.

“We design contingencies for a variety of potential soils that might be encountered, which is easier, cheaper, and more effective than doing an exhaustive study,” Davis says. “It reduces the risk to our clients because we go out prepared for just about any variation or anomaly that could occur. Those things are easy to accommodate for if you do it early in the design; they’re very expensive to retrofit down the road.”

Davis is also proud of Turnagain’s “true Alaskan fleet” of infrastructure and equipment that was envisioned as—and has proven to be—beefy enough for the natural elements confronting a marine construction environment.

“Our barges are larger and more seaworthy than most construction barges, which allow us to travel in adverse conditions [and] do work in Cook Inlet and the Aleutians. We know it’s not a possibility but a certainty we’ll encounter 100-plus [mile per hour] winds and a big wave environment, and we’ve built our fleet for those conditions.”

More than just an electrician, Alcan Electrical & Engineering has expanded the scope of its services as businesses have seen their needs evolve, from basic electrical work to increasingly technical projects such as security and telecommunications.

“We do so much in-house as far as all the disciplines of electrical and telecommunications, so we’re very much a turnkey solution and we handle very complex projects, big or small,” says Alcan President Chrys Fleming. “Many come to us because of that. The fact that we do it all in-house really benefits both the general contractors and the business owners.”

Alcan was founded in 1971 by George Bringmann. Today it remains operated by Bringmann’s relatives and Fleming, who came on years ago as a wireman apprentice and is now a co-owner. Alcan’s offerings today include preconstruction, design/build and assist, low-voltage systems, electrical service and maintenance, outside line construction, and telecommunications cabling and equipment installations.

“Rather than multiple contractors attempting to coordinate all of the electrical and communication requirements for a project, Alcan has the ability and expertise to handle it all,” Fleming says.

Based in Anchorage, Alcan also maintains offices in Fairbanks, Wasilla, and Juneau.

“We just had a guy get back from Prudhoe Bay, we’re out on the Aleutians, down in Ketchikan, in Juneau, in Sitka—you name it,” Fleming says.

Alcan employs up to 140 full-time employees, from electrical journeymen and apprentices to telecommunications and security professionals, a full IT department, and back office staff.

“We do everything electrically,” Fleming says. “We’ve worked on the Slope, and we’ve worked on oil platforms. Our projects range from building schools to working on radar facilities up at Clear [Space Force Station] outside of Fairbanks. We’re currently working on both Fort Greely on a barrack project and at Fort Wainwright on a communications center. And we’re building the new Solid Waste Services Central Transfer Station off Dowling Road in Anchorage.”

After fifteen years with Alcan, Fleming can appreciate its continuing maturation and flexibility as the company grows in newer focus areas. For instance, telecommunication has advanced into more fiber optic-based installations with higher-category cabling.

“And security has moved beyond a traditional burglar system, if you will, to camera systems we design and manage, to provide more security at commercial locations,” Fleming says. “Electrical has always historically been our main area of work, and over the past twenty years it’s definitely evolved with telecommunication and security work.”

When the telecom and technology sector knocked on Alcan’s door, Alcan didn’t refuse the call, sticking to its contractor and engineering bailiwick. Where the boundaries between industry sectors are blurry, sliding between them is a natural development for businesses prepared to diversify.